The statistics represent the development in Denmark's trade in goods with the other Member States of the European Unionat at a detailed commodity level (imports and exports) .

The statistics were introduced at the beginning of the EC Single Market 1 January 1993. Previously, these flows of goods were analysed through customs and shipping documents reported by firms to the Customs and Tax Authorities.

The sources of the data are monthly reports from approx. 10,000 firms.

The statistics show Denmark's imports and exports of goods from/to the other European Union countries, distributed among partner countries and approx. 10,500 different goods recorded by value, net weight in kilograms and/or supplementary unit. In addition unit value and volume indices are published at a more aggregated level (SITC-chapters, but not distributed among partner countries).

The statistics are prepared on the basis of reports from Danish companies with total annual imports and/or exports of goods of DKK 1.6m and DKK 4.1m, respectively. The obligation to report is established for imports and exports separately.

For each commodity flow (imports or exports) and month, the following statistical information is gathered:

Product code in accordance with the Combined Nomenclature CN

Partner country (imports=country of consignment, exports=country of destination)

The statistics are published at the most detailed level as sums of statistical value (estimated on the basis of the invoice value), net weight, and any supplementary unit for identical occurrences of product code and partner country, some types of transactions are, however, indicated separately (e.g. repair goods). In addition, quarterly unit value and volume indices are published at a more aggregated level (SITC-chapters, but not distributed among partner countries).

Grouping is primarily made on commodity groups (e.g. all goods for which the first two digits are identical, i.e. the chapter level) for each flow of goods (imports or exports). For the grouping, different nomenclatures are used (KN, SITC rev. 3, BEC and KONJ).

External trade figures are comparable over time because any gap in the time series as a result of changed collection methods etc. is adjusted for by estimation. Data comparability does not apply at the most detailed commodity level because the content of many product codes is changed over time.

As the share of estimated figures is in the order of 20-30 per cent when the statistics are published for the first time, there are a number of deviations between the first and the final publication of external trade figures for any given month. The inaccuracy on the provisional statistics can be illustrated by the difference between the first provisional statistics and the revised figures.